The media consensus is that the Cubs have had another bad off-season to stack up with three bad seasons in a row. People believe that the Cubs will not spent the alleged Tanaka money on any other high priced free agents.
As the team's own web site states, the Cubs have not spent heavily on free agents this off-season as the
team continues its rebuilding process and waits for impact prospects
such as Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez to arrive. Losing out on
Tanaka does not mean they now will pursue free-agent pitchers Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez or Matt Garza, but they'll most likely shift their focus to who is available after the 2014 season.
Epstein hasn't thrown in the towel on the 2014 season.
"This season starting, we don't show up in Spring Training saying,
'Hey, let's get ready for 2000 whatever year down the road,'" Epstein
said. "We're trying to compete and win as many games as we can in 2014.
We want to show improvement, and we'd love to show a lot of improvement.
There's room for improvement.
"We have a lot of talented players on the roster who didn't have
their best years last year, and I know they're really committed with the
work they've done this offseason to doing better next year," he said,
"and we have guys who did make breakthroughs last year, and they want to
sustain that progress and build from there."
However, Epstein and Hoyer are bringing back basically the same team that nudged near another 100 loss season last year. In fact, some believe the starting rotation is actually worse than last season's opening day roster, as it will be filled by holdovers Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood, Edwin Jackson, and then the final two spots going to Jake Arrieta, Chris Rusin, Justin Grimm or swingman Carlos Villanueva. For some, it is time to see if the Epstein front office and scouting department knows what is doing by seeing if Arrieta, and Grimm can crack the rotation and perform well. If not, that bodes badly for the future.
The position players are basically the same from last year, too. Castillo and Kottaras are the catching corps - - - with the latter being a down grade from Narvarro's comeback season. The infield remains the same: Rizzo, Barney, Castro and Valbuena, with Murphy and Olt possible platoon players if they have good springs. Watkins appears to be in the mix for a bench spot. In the outfield, Lake, Ruggiano, Schierholtz will be starters, with Sweeney as the fourth outfielder. Realistically, only two or three of these players were be starters on any other major league team.
In addition, the Cubs have another new coaching staff. That may cause additional erosion in the team's projected record.
Free agent pitchers, including those second tier guys the Cubs like to sign and flip, are now more hesitant to sign with Chicago, for that very reason. As it stands, it is likely that most of the last tradeable assets on the current roster will be gone in July: Samardzija, Veras, Wright and Schierholtz.
Expectations for the Cubs are at an all time low. Yesterday, several fans commented that they were five digits long on the season ticket waiting list, but have been constantly getting cold calls from the Cubs to buy packages. Everyone will be settling in for a long winter of hibernation.
